Man and Beast, Dead and Alive
by RhymeAndTreason
Summary: About four months before the Millenium Festival would have been held, Dimitri encounters a very unique monster while slaughtering an Imperial camp. What follows from there is the story of two accursed, damned, and broken people. Dimitri/Marianne
1. Something Like A Reunion

**so far I've finished Azure Moon and Crimson Flower, and my god, Three Houses is such a step up from Fates. I'm so glad I decided that Echoes was good enough to have earned the series one more chance from me. I genuinely love it. I especially love these two poor souls. They make me so sad. I had to write something for them.**

**Spoilers, obviously.**

* * *

"Agh-!"

Death cries echoed across the night air. From where? It was impossible to say. Not only were the shadows thick and impenetrable, with all the torches choked out by an unknown hand, but a shrouding fog blanketed the forest.

"It's a monste-!" The soldier never finished his warning. A lance, protruding through his chest from behind, saw to that.

"Hahaha!" The attacker, a bitter, bloodstained man in black armour laughed madly.

"If I am a monster, what does that make you, you two-legged beasts? Devils?" He laughed, "You dogs of the Empire! You are the only creatures on this Earth lower even than I."

Without pausing even to catch his breath, Prince Dimitri continued to stalk among the tents of the Imperial camp, unseen in the fog until it was much too late.

First, a hapless soldier who had heard his laughter and gone to look for the source found his skull caved in by Dimitri's lance. Next, the other night guards, gathering in a wary circle around the embers of their campfire were torn limb from limb by a vicious whirlwind of black, blue, and gold. Their sleeping companions were run through without a second thought. Those who were woken by the noise had barely enough time to realise they were dying before the eternal flames, aided by the exile prince's fury, claimed them.

It was not long at all before the centre of the camp was a gory mess of entrails, severed limbs, and blood coating every surface as if painted in red.

Dimitri had lanced straight through from the edge to the centre, and now set out to finish his slaughter by circling outwards.

The moment he took his first step, the ground shuddered, the earth shaking as if rippling from a meteor impact.

Strange.

He hadn't seen a Demonic Beast among the Imperial troops in this particular camp. They were difficult not to notice. But there was nothing else that could shake the ground like that. Perhaps a giant wolf had strayed into the area? Or perhaps his perfunctory scouting had simply missed the titanic creature somehow.

Either way, whether a weapon of the Adrestian Empire or a beast of the woods, it wouldn't do to leave the thing alive, so Dimitri turned to face the roar he could now distantly hear, and charged.

What he found was a scene of destruction greater even than what he had wrought moments ago. Melting, poison-slathered ground, shredded and half-eaten corpses, pieces of flesh and oceans of blood scattered as far as the eye could see, and no edifice left intact. And at the centre of it all, crawling out of the fog, a reptilian creature larger than any Demonic Beast that Dimitri had ever seen before.

The beast turned to look at him, and opened its toothy maw.

"**Human… I can smell the power that dwells within you. Will you be what sates my hunger tonight, as these morsels could not? Crest-bearer… A feast as I haven't had in all my years…**" A horrible, rumbling, distorted voice issued forth.

Dimitri didn't let his surprise show, merely narrowing his eyes. A talking Demonic Beast? A curiosity indeed. A scholar like Linhardt or old Hanneman might have wanted to capture and study this unique anomaly.

To Dimitri, however, this only made it that much more of a monster and that much more deserving of death.

"Hah! Not this night. I have better places to die than in your foul innards. You'll just have to wait for your second chance when I join you in the inferno."

The beast lashed out suddenly, nearly tearing Dimitri in two with one vicious swipe of its claws. He was barely able to jump backwards in time to avoid the blow.

The second his feet touched ground again, he pushed forwards, sprinting head-on at the beast. The beast roared and threw its head forwards, maw gaping open. Rather than make any attempt to avoid it, Dimitri leapt into the beast's waiting mouth and, before it could close its jaw, jammed his lance up through the roof of its mouth, barring open its maw. Drawing a knife from a scabbard at his side, he began to slash at the gums, and quickly knocked out a few of the creature's teeth.

His lance began to buckle under the crushing weight of the beast's bite, and the first traces of acidic, poisonous gas could be seen coming up its throat. Wasting no time, Dimitri grabbed his lance again and leapt out through the gap in its teeth he had made as the beast's jaws snapped shut.

A second later, the beast roared, its mouth flying open again, and jets of poison gushed forth, despoiling everything they touched. Dimitri charged forwards, pushing straight through the cloud. The pain meant nothing to him. He burst out of the poison gas near the beast's head, skin burning where the acidic poison had touched it, his cape dissolving in spots. The force of his fury drove him on, heedless of his wounds.

As he rushed forwards, the closeness and angle proved just enough that Dimitri could see the beast's eyes clearly for the first time - the beast's horribly human, hauntingly familiar eyes.

Dimitri couldn't contain his surprise this time. He stopped in his tracks, staring up at an eye he knew all too well.

"Impossible-!" He snarled.

The loud crackle of rapidly-forming ice rang in his ears. His momentary hesitation had left him wide open, and spears of ice sprang from the ground, piercing through his body and lifting him up.

A Blizzard spell. Another oddity, another feat beyond the animalistic mind of a Demonic Beast. But perhaps less of a surprising one, now that he had recognised the eye of the beast.

A sudden impact in his side sent him flying. The beast had taken advantage of his helpless state, suspended above the ground by the icicles impaling him, to land a blow, ramming him with a swing of its head.

Dimitri hit the ground hard and bounced further, slowing to a roll and then a stop. Forcing himself to his feet was an exercise in agony. The blow had no doubt broken some bones, his acid-burnt skin strained, and there were still two broken-off icicles impaling his thigh and side. As it was, he was barely able to push himself onto his knees.

The beast lumbered toward him, snarling and spitting.

"Damn you-!" Dimitri growled. It was kill or be killed - what did a little bit of shattered marrow and some torn flesh matter on that scale? Gritting his teeth, ignoring the pain, Dimitri forced himself to stand.

This pain was nothing! The dead knew no hurt, and the prince of Faerghus was nearly five years dead. As if a few broken bones could forestall his revenge, the vengeance of the grave!

Leaning heavily on his lance, Dimitri glares defiantly at the approaching beast.

"This is nothing! You'll have to do better than _that _to kill me."

He attempted to step forwards, and nearly fell as his leg gave out beneath him.

The beast snorted.

"**Cease the bravado, princeling. Your end has come. Join your family in the grave, Dimitri!**" It roared.

Dimitri did not close his eyes as the creature's jaws began to close around him.

Even now, unable to so much as move, he was still convinced that he would survive. He had lived this long only that he might fulfill the vengeance of those who had died for him. Nothing could yet kill him while the murderers still drew breath.

Edelgard… he would stop at nothing to see her dead.

In last moment of desperation, he drew his knife again, jabbed it into the beast's approaching tongue, and pulled. The blade sliced across the tongue, creating a long thin line across it.

The beast reared backwards on its his legs, roaring in pain. It slammed back into all fours, still roaring in pain. It glared at Dimitri with nothing less than utter hate in its eyes.

The knife fell out of Dimitri's hand. He no longer had the strength to hold it.

His grip on his lance faltered, and he slid a little further down. He no longer had the strength to keep himself properly standing.

The beast approached again. There was nothing left Dimitri could do to forestall his demise.

Light cut through the fog. The first rays of sunlight, shining from the edge of dawn, struck the beast, which seemed to burn away in the sun's light. Its scales crumbled into ash as the burning spread across its body, eating away its monstrous form.

Roaring in panic, the beast turned around and fled with greater speed than Dimitri had imagined the hulking creature to be capable of. Within moments, it had disappeared back into the fog.

Dimitri reached out after it.

"Marianne, wait-!"

And at last his strength gave out and he collapsed to the ground.

* * *

The sun was nearly at its peak when Dimitri stumbled into the nearest town. A vulnerary had restored his wounds just enough to walk away, if not enough to call himself truly healed. From there, it had been a long and difficult hike, and one he wouldn't have made if he were less wounded. But now he was in too sorry a state to hunt food for himself, and he had already gone too long without eating. A visit to an inn or tavern was an unfortunate necessity at this point.

He stood in the town square for a moment to get his bearings, unheeding of all the wary eyes on his ragged, blood-soaked form. Once he was satisfied that he knew where to find a place he could buy food, he continued on his way, followed by the eyes of the townsfolk, fearing what might have brought this terrible revenant to their home.

Dimitri nearly fell through the doors of the inn. He staggered to the counter and slammed a bag of gold coins on top of it.

"Whatever you have. And lots of it."

Without waiting for a reply, he turned away and made for the farthest table, falling heavily, as if his skin and bones had become a sack full of rocks, into the chair. He stayed like that, still as the grave,

Some small cinder of life seemed to return to his body when a large plate piled with steaks and roasts and a stein of beer were set in front of him. He sat up a little straighter and picked up a knife and fork.

"Will ye be wanting a room as well?" Asked the innkeeper.

Dimitri scoffed, "No. I'm sure I'll be able to find some suitable gutter to pass out in."

The innkeeper shrugged and left Dimitri to his food, which he began to tear into with a rare enthusiasm. Even with as much food as there was on his plate, it wasn't all that long until Dimitri had picked it clean in his ravenous hunger.

It all tasted like ash to him, as most everything did.

He fell over forwards, propping himself up with his elbows on the table. He was so tired… it felt as if he had not slept in decades. Certainly he had not truly rested these past five years. He'd not had the time. Every waking hour, every second of every day, was spent dragging his bloody corpse towards the vengeance that the souls haunting him demanded. Nearly five years, and it still felt so far away.

He began to mumble to himself, a dark murmur heard only vaguely by the inn's other patrons.

"Glenn, I would never. You know that. I _will _give you peace… but I… Father, would you have me break an oath? I know, I know. I won't rest until you've been avenged. But that girl, I-"

His mad rambling was interrupted. The door creaked open, and a face he had not seen in nearly five years staggered into the room, in at least as much of a sorry state as he had been.

The years hadn't changed Marianne all that much. Her hair was the same barely-contained disaster, the shadows under her eyes still looked large enough to swallow the continent. No, perhaps they had deepened - it didn't take a stroke of genius for Dimitri to guess why. Her clothes, beneath her riding cloak, were much finer - or clearly had been once, but now they were worn ragged, as if she had been wearing them for weeks in the wilderness.

When he saw her, he involuntarily leapt to his feet, hands slamming on the table to support his weight as he leant forwards. The sound attracted her attention, and as her head turned and she saw him in the far corner of the room, her face contorted in shock and horror.

Her jaw, slackened by surprise, hung open, and Dimitri could see that there was a hole in her smile - a few teeth, the same ones he had knocked out of the Demonic Beast last night, were missing.

She staggered backwards and, barely three steps in door, proceeded to turn and flee back outside.

Dimitri did not hesitate to follow, knocking over chairs and tables as he rushed after Marianne.

He burst out of the doors just in time to catch her ducking into an alley out of the corner of his eye. He rounded the corner at full speed and found her standing, facing towards him, some metres ahead. She was breathing heavily, unmistakable fear in her shaking eyes.

"Stay away from me!" She shrieked.

"Marianne, I-"

She thrust out her arms, magic circles forming around them, and a wall of ice lanced up from the ground, blocking off the narrow alleyway and separating her and Dimitri.

"I'm sorry, Dimitri! Please, stay away, for your own sake. You know my curse, you've seen it. I've _hurt _you… and that's the last thing I ever wanted. I can't let it happen again!"

Dimitri crossed his arms, even though he knew Marianne couldn't see him, and snorted.

"I will not."

"But-"

"I told you before, didn't I? I will-"

"I'm nothing but a beast! A monster! You've seen what happened to me! You can't save me from this." The despair in her voice hurt Dimitri more than any wound he'd suffered during these long years ever had.

"Marianne," he said, voice low and hoarse, "Whatever you think you are, I am worse. If you are damned, I am a demon."

The sound of footsteps on cobble told him that Marianne had already left and would not hear him, however.

He lay one hand on the icy wall with such softness, as he might've held Marianne had she let him.

Suddenly, he felt the warm feeling of healing magic flowing through his body, closing his wounds, mending his body. A Physic spell, a parting gift from Marianne. Or an apology, rather.

Dimitri sighed heavily. By now, Marianne would be far beyond his reach. Most likely, she had fled back into the woods. He ventured a guess that she had only been in town in the first place for the same reasons that he had.

The forest here was vast. It would take no small degree of luck to find one woman in the foggy sea of trees.

Dimitri turned and walked away, unsteady and clutching at his head.

"I'm sorry, Glenn," he mumbled, "I'm sorry. I- I won't let myself be distracted any longer. But I…"

He cast one last mournful glance over his shoulder at the wall of ice, which was already beginning to melt away.

* * *

"Forgive me, but I will be there for you. Whether you want me to or not."

Those words from five years ago… were they an oath so easily broken?

* * *

True to his words to the innkeeper, nightfall found Dimitri on the filthy ground against the wall of some alleyway, his cape wrapped around him for warmth. Even the likes of him still had to sleep sometimes.

Marianne crouched in front of him, softly stroking his cheek with one shaking hand.

"What happened to you, Dimitri?" She whispered, tears in her eyes.

This was dangerous. She shouldn't have taken this risk. Even now, she could feel the beast inside of her clawing its way to the surface.

But…

"I… heard you were executed. I think I cried for days. I can't tell you how happy seeing you alive made me. Yet I…" she sighed sorrowfully, "It made me sad, too. Life hasn't been kind to you."

She gently ran her fingers through his unkempt, matted hair.

"Is this… is this my fault? I told you. I'm cursed, I'm bad luck. I told you! Why didn't you listen!?" She sobbed, and immediately clamped a hand over her mouth.

Dimitri stirred in his sleep for a moment, but Marianne's outburst did not wake him.

Slowly, she removed her hand from her mouth. She could hold back her tears no longer, and they now were streaming down her face. She clasped her hands in front of her chest, head bowed, and weeped for the exiled prince of Faerghus, for the leader of the Blue Lions, for the poor boy who had understood her as none else in the Academy had. The tears slid down her cheeks and off her face, splashing on Dimitri's chest like raindrops.

"Aghk!" Suddenly, Marianne seized up, gasping and choking, clutching at herself.

There was no more time. She needed to flee, to be far away, to be deep in the forest when the beast took hold.

"I'm sorry. Farewell, Dimitri. I don't think we'll meet again. I'll say a prayer for you." And, with one last longing look, Marianne forced herself to her feet and walked agonisingly away, vanishing into a fog rolling into town as if from nowhere.


	2. Something Like Hope

**there were quite a few things i meant to say here, but I only remember three of them**

**1\. I forgot that the Wandering Beast had a unique appearance and wasn't just another Demonic Beast. I'm kind of kicking myself for that. But I've been vague enough in my descriptions that the only thing that I've said that was actually *wrong* was the poison breath, which i'm willing to just roll with.**

**2\. When I wrote the last chapter, I didn't know that Dimitri canonically lost his sense of taste, so it was pure coincidence that I wrote him as having lost his sense of taste. I'm kind of proud of myself!**

**Oh, also, I have a few chapters written ahead of time, but I'm not posting them immediately in case there's something I need to edit (such as realizing chapters 2 and 3 were too similar and frankensteining the similar bits together into two quite different chapters), as well as to have a bit of a buffer so I can still get *something* posted if I can't write for a while (such as how I'll probably not have much time in the next ~week or so due to moving).**

* * *

The morning found Dimitri, against all odds, still in town. He walked aimlessly down the cobble streets.

Any other morning, he would've been long gone, well on his way to his next massacre. But this morning…

Despite what he'd told his ghosts, he remained distracted. Marianne wouldn't leave his mind. He couldn't forget the fear and pain in her eyes.

So here he was. Asking the townsfolk about Demonic Beasts in the forest and blue-haired strangers.

_"__You ran into that thing? And you're still alive?"_

_"__Oh, you mean her? She first came into town… a few months ago, I think. Don't see her too often."_

_"__It's been haunting the woods a while now. They say it comes in the night and drags people into the forest to eat them."_

_"__She always leaves pretty quick, too. Always seems afraid of something. Like something's chasing her."_

_"__The Wandering Beast, people call it. Isn't that thing s'posed to live up in the northeast? Funny that it'd wander this far down south. Or d'you think it's not even the same one?"_

"Is it _you_ she's so afraid of?"

The latest person Dimitri had asked, the proprietor of a pub for which the term "hole in the wall" would be generous, eyed him suspiciously.

"No," Dimitri replied flatly.

The barman's suspicious eye only got more suspicious.

"Is there anything else you can tell me?"

The barman said nothing.

Dimitri turned around and left, uncaring of how suspicious he must seem.

"What a waste of a morning," he growled as he ascended the stairs back to street level. Not a single scrap of useful information. Barely anything he couldn't have figured out on his own, even.

He stared up at the rising sun.

"Nothing more to do around here, then," he sighed, turning and making for the town gates.

"No, no more. I won't waste any more time, Father, Stepmother. I'm sorry to all of you," he muttered as he went.

* * *

Marianne watched him go, hidden nearby. After everything was said and done… she just hadn't been able to bring herself to leave entirely. As soon as dawn had come, she'd gone back into town to find Dimitri. She had been following him at a distance all morning, hoping she'd work up the courage either to go to his side or to leave him and not look back.

No luck, so far.

"... I can't," she murmured. She knew it. The only thing she could do was flee back into the forest and never return. Living alongside people again was something forever beyond her. But she so dearly wanted to be with Dimitri again, to have some small taste of long-gone better times. But she knew she'd only hurt him. But she couldn't bear to be alone anymore, not when she knew companionship was within reach. But…

She continued to follow Dimitri, still being sure to never get close and never allow him to see her. And she prayed for salvation of any kind to find her soon.

* * *

Dimitri was barely paying attention to the world around him as he walked, so lost was he in the haunted, decaying halls of his mind. This wasn't necessarily unusual for him; he rarely thought of much but his vengeance, rarely saw anything that wouldn't aid that goal. Today, though, the cause of his mental seclusion wasn't his inflexible, one-track mind. It was the sudden and unwelcome arrival of a second track. His efforts to reconcile this distraction completely separated him from the outside world.

He probably wouldn't have ever noticed the commotion by the side of the road if he hadn't caught the words "wandering beast."

Outside of town, close enough that the town was still in sight and the forest had yet to truly begin, a crowd of people had gathered, all gawking at something left beside the road.

It was, Dimitri realised, a pile of corpses. That might have been too generous a word, in truth. Most of them were barely recognisable as humans. They had been viciously torn apart by great fangs, and large chunks were missing from each one - something had eaten them.

Dimitri could guess what.

At the edge of the scene, he noticed something out of place. A man wearing the clothes of a scholar, standing apart from the crowd. Watching him with a calculating look in his eyes.

Dimitri walked away.

"You there!"

Dimitri sighed. The scholar had followed him, and approached him as soon as they were far enough as to be out of sight and mind from the crowd.

Dimitri turned to look at him with a withering and impatient glare. The scholar went on anyway.

"This was the work of the Wandering Beast. A most dangerous creature that wears the skin of a human being. But I know its true identity, and I will soon see the world rid of it. You know her too. I saw you and the Von Edmund girl yesterday. I don't know what your relationship with her is, but I tell you this: for your own good, never go near her aga-ghk!"

Dimitri, without warning, had lashed out his arm and grabbed the scholar by his neck. He squeezed his hand around the scholar's neck with choking force and lifted the scholar up into the air.

"You listen to me, you filth. You're not worth killing just yet, but you're getting very close. You ever breathe another word about Marianne to anyone, I'll kill you. If I ever see you again, I'll kill you. If you ever come near Marianne again, I will show you just how drawn-out and cruel a death can be. Leave. Never come back. And curse your luck, that you met a second such monster." And with that, he hurled the scholar to the ground and walked away, ignoring him as he lay on the ground and gasped and choked for breath.

* * *

Dimitri trudged through the forest, as he had been for hours now. He wasn't really sure where it was that he was going anymore. He'd set out with a destination, or at least a direction, in mind, but as the hours wore on, he had found himself increasingly torn. He had at times stumbled about the forest clutching at his own head, going in one direction and then resolving to go another.

The ghosts called for vengeance. Revenge was his life's work and his duty to the dead. He had put years into this pursuit and would continue as long as necessary.

"But Marianne is suffering," he'd told them earlier, as he drifted off course, "I cannot abandon her. I told her I would be there for her. Is five years long enough to forget such a promise? I know not what I can do for her, but surely I must try…"

The ghosts didn't see it that way. His promise to them came first, they reminded him. The girl could wait, and if she couldn't, what did it matter? The peace of the dead came before the trials of the living.

He remembered eating dinner with Marianne, and tending the greenhouse with her, and cleaning the stables with her, and inviting her to join the Blue Lions, and studying for exams with her, and taking an arrow for her, and being healed by her, and the last time he had seen her face on the day Garreg Mach fell.

He remembered the night of the ball, before everything had fallen apart.

_"__I was wondering where you went, Marianne. I've been looking all over for you."_

_"__Oh! Dimitri! I'm sorry, I just… I'm not good with… crowds."_

_"__No, I understand completely. I found I needed a break, too. At any rate, there was something I wanted to ask you… Would you care to dance with me?"_

_"__Oh! Oh… Um, I… I don't think I'm ready to go back in there just yet."_

_"__I had no intention of asking you to. The Goddess Tower seems like a perfectly fine venue to me. Doesn't it?"_

He remembered dancing there with her. He remembered afterwards hearing whispers not meant for him, prayers whispered in the silence in service to a silly old legend; he remembered hearing Marianne confess something that had shaken him to the core.

And he remembered watching his father die, and seeing Glenn's corpse, and never even being able to be sure which one was his stepmother's body. He remembered his father's last words. He remembered the guilt and horror of being the only survivor.

A twig snapped loudly somewhere behind him. Dimitri didn't take any particular notice of it; whoever had been following had been doing so almost since he had left the town, and had been doing quite a poor job of it. He didn't much care who they were or why they might be following him. If they attacked him, he'd kill them. If not, it hardly seemed to matter to him.

So he fell back into his fugue and continued to trudge back and forth in crooked lines, muttering and ranting and arguing with voices no one else could hear.

When the sun began to turn red on the horizon, he was still lost. By this point, he had turned around so many times he no longer had even the slightest idea of where he might be, his only hint being the wide river he had found himself on the banks of.

His mysterious follower was still there. They had, over the course of the day, alternated between coming a little closer and retreating to a distance far enough away he'd barely been able to tell they were still there. Either way, while they'd done a terrible job of concealing their presence, he still hadn't been able to catch sight of them once.

He turned to face them, or at least, in the direction where last he had heard the sound of a snapping twig.

"Marianne. It's you, isn't it?"

Shamefaced, the named woman appeared from behind a tree. Alongside the shame, fear and sorrow were evident on her face.

"Dimitri," she began, haltingly, "I… I… I'm sorry, but I just… I couldn't… I'll… I know I shouldn't have, but… I'll be leaving-!"

Marianne gasped as she fumbled and barely caught a small leather bag that Dimitri had thrown at her out of nowhere.

"It's traveling rations. Dried meat and nuts, mostly. Stay. Eat." He said, sitting down on a nearby log.

"I- I'm grateful, really, but I can't… it's almost night and I don't… I don't want to hurt you again…"

"I don't care. You're a monster, but so am I. I don't fear you, and neither should you. And there's still time before dark. Come here and sit down."

Hesitantly, Marianne came closer and, indeed, sat down on the log beside Dimitri.

"You're not a monster. You're not like me, Dimitri."

"Am I not? I've become truly repulsive in the years since we last met. There's more blood on my hands than you could ever imagine," he stared at his hands for a moment, as if he could still see them stained in fresh blood, "If you're a monster, then… well, it seems that, even now, we are still the same."

Marianne turned to look at him, an expression of unimaginable ruth in her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, to deny him again, but Dimitri interrupted her.

"Eat, Marianne. I know it's not much, and I wish I had more to offer you. I interrupted your meal yesterday, and you haven't eaten anything in a long time, have you?"

Marianne turned her gaze to the ground.

"Last night, I…"

"But when was the last time _you_ ate? Ate like a human being."

"... I'm not sure I remember."

"Then go ahead. Eat as much as you like."

Marianne scooped a handful of nuts out of the bag, and began to eat.

"Thank you," she murmured.

Dimitri said nothing, and Marianne kept eating. When the contents of the bag had been worn down to almost nothing, he said, apropos of nothing,

"Is it difficult?"

"... What?"

"Eating. With those teeth missing."

"Oh…" Marianne reached up and rubbed her cheek. In all honesty, she had completely forgotten about the teeth Dimitri had knocked out of her mouth when she had fought him as a beast. She'd had much more pressing things to feel awful about. She shook her head, "No, I gaven't been having any problems. Well, there's a little bit of a whistling sound sometimes, but I don't mind it and I'm not having any trouble eating."

"That's good."

She turned to look at him, and saw how carefully expressionless his face was.

"You shouldn't feel bad about it," She told him, "You couldn't have known it was me. You did what you had to to defend yourself."

"Hmm," he replied, with just as much affected detachment, and Marianne saw through it just as easily.

"Where are you going?" She asked, changing the subject.

"I don't really know. Wherever the Imperial army is. I can't stop until they're all dead. Until I've taken El- taken Edelgard's head."

"But why? I understand why you can't return to Faerghus, but why do this to yourself? Why keep fighting all alone? Why don't you just go live somewhere, hidden away?"

"Because the dead need to be laid to rest," He said simply, "Because the grave calls for vengeance."

Marianne sighed. She had seen Dimitri arguing as if with unseen ghosts, and she couldn't pretend to understand. She didn't even know if he was really haunted or just mad from isolation and trauma. And all she could do was pray for him to find peace.

"I…" she mumbled, "I… don't understand, but I wish I could do something for you."

Dimitri eyed her critically.

"Come with me," he said.

Marianne glanced upwards, at the red sunlight quickly vanishing from the sky.

"I'd only be trouble for you. Th- thank you, Dimitri. But I have to go." She said, a note of panic entering her voice. She rose to her feet, and began to run away.

She only made it a couple of steps.

Dimitri grabbed her hand as she went.

"Don't be afraid," he said.

Marianne struggled to break free, but Dimitri's grip was iron.

"Let go! Dimitri, I don't want to hurt you!"

"You won't," he said.

"Yes I will! If you don't let me get away before… before _it_ happens, I'll end up killing you! I… I…" she was in tears and practically screaming at this point.

Dimitri shook his head.

"You know I won't let that happen." He pulled her close, wrapped his arms around her.

"Stay with me," he said, softly.

His embrace was cold and dispirited, like hugging a corpse. It was all that he had to offer, and there was a hint of desperation in it.

"This is suicide, Dimitri!"

Dimitri said nothing, only held her close and watched as the last traces of light fled the sky above.

"Please, Dimitri!" Marianne begged, "I can't- I can't stay any longer!"

He slackened his grip a little, and Marianne stumbled backwards. Before she could turn and run, he took her hands in his and raised them up.

"I told you once that being near you brought me only good luck. You have never hurt me. And I'm going to prove to you that you never will."

Before she could respond, Marianne doubled over, hugging herself tightly. The beast could not be contained for much longer; she felt as if it were clawing its way up her throat, and the terror she felt was almost physically painful.

Dimitri, hesitantly put an unsure arm around her shoulders and held her closer as she trembled in pain and fear.

Finally, nearly half an hour after the sun had set, after what seemed to Dimitri like an eternity of helplessly watching Marianne's agony, the beast finally took hold. Marianne tore herself out of Dimitri's grasp, and threw herself on the ground, convulsing wildly. Black sludge began to ooze from her mouth and eyes, and rapidly began to cover her body. No sooner had every last trace of her skin disappeared, than the sludge burst outwards, rapidly forming into the massive, stony, reptilian shape of a Demonic Beast.

It and Dimitri stood face-to-face.

"Good evening. I was hoping to talk to you."

**"****Flippant words, little prince,"** The beast said, leaning its stony head down and stretching its jaw as if preparing to open them wide and eat him whole, **"but you recall last night as well as I. There will be no dawn to save you this time. Tonight, I will feast on your bones."**

Dimitri scoffed, "You won't even try."

The beast shifted its head, regarding him with one horrible eye.

**"****Oh? And what makes you say that? What gives you such unfounded confidence?"**

Dimitri stepped forward, reaching out one arm.

"Because even now," he said, laying his hand on the tip of the beast's snout, "you and I are still the same."

The beast regarded him sceptically, but did not move to attack. A flicker of something like hope shone in her eyes.

**"****Are we? Monsters and princes are hardly alike."**

"Look at me, Marianne-"

**"****Do not call me that,"** she snapped, **"Marianne dies each dusk and returns each dawn. I am nameless, nothing more than a wandering beast!"**

"Maybe so, but you have more of Marianne in you than either of you know. And she's stronger than she knows, too. _Now look at me, Marianne. _I am dead. Nothing but a vengeful corpse. There is… so much blood on my hands. It is the only thing I have done these long years, killing. All that I have thought about. My only purpose for remaining in this life. Roam the night as much as you want, hunt whoever you want, no matter what kind of monster you become, I will still be as much a beast as you."

Marianne lowered her head, pushed it right up against Dimitri's. She sniffed, her monstrous form making it unavoidably loud.

**"****I… I can smell the blood on you, four years and countless men's worth. Enslaved to another will. You… even as I have fallen, so, too, have you. Eve**n now…" her voice broke, suddenly sounding tearful and a little more human, "You still understand."

"I always will."

Marianne sobbed; a strange sound from such a massive and reptilian creature, "I'm sorry! It's because of me! My curse has dragged you down with me… **I'll liberate you from your suffering… **No! No, no... "

"I lay down in this grave of my own damn will, don't you dare think otherwise. You're still good luck to me," Dimitri denied, lightly tapping the side of Marianne's head with the backs of his fingers, "Man or beast."

Marianne only sobbed harder.

"You don't know that! You don't know what I am! You don't… You don't... You… Don't **lea**ve me ag**ain**, D**imitri**," she pleaded, voice trembling with a monstrous reverb.

Dimitri said nothing. He stepped closer. As he inched closer, the beast shook more and more - with fear, happiness, relief, or rage, Dimitri could not tell.

Suddenly, the beast roared, the sheer force of it causing Dimitri to stumble backwards.

**"****I'll be made a fool of no longer,"** it growled, "**You will regret not having fled when you had the chance."**

Dimitri steadied his feet and glared right back.

"And why would I?"

**"****Because my feast will be denied no longer. You will not escape again."**

"Hah! I won't be dying tonight," Dimitri denied, not moving an inch.

The beast snarled and lashed out. Dimitri, with an absolute minimum of movement, stepped aside.

"You're still Marianne under there," he continued, unphased, even as the beast attacked again and again and he avoided its claws each time, "More than anything else, you don't want to be alone anymore. I don't believe you'd really kill the only person damned like you."

**"****Silence! You know nothing, fool!"**

Dimitri walked fearlessly back towards the beast until he was right up in its face.

"Marianne-"

**"****Shut up!"** The beast roared.

It swung its head, and Dimitri, too close to avoid such a sudden attack, felt its horn carve into his flesh, tearing a jagged line down his face.

Even he had to scream in agony as the beast tore out his eye in a fountain of blood.

The pain was unimaginable, worse than any wound he'd ever taken before.

He collapsed to his knees, pressing a hand to the wound, trying to stem the flow of blood. To no avail; the blood gushed from his now empty eye-socket regardless of his efforts until his face and hand were dyed red.

He ground and grit his teeth, anything to help bear the pain. It was pure agony, and he was barely holding back from screaming.

The beast leaned down.

**"****Do you understand now? I am not your friend! I will not hesitate to kill you!"**

"Indeed…?" Dimitri snarled, forcing the words out even though every ounce of him felt like screaming in pain, "Then why do I still live? If you hadn't hesitated, I would be dead right now."

He forced himself to his feet.

"Do you fear that I will abandon you, Marianne?"

**"****Wh**a**t**?"

"I know what it's like, to be damned and alone. And now I know what it's like to find someone else just the same."

The beast snarled, but there was a confused and unsure twitch in its eye as it lashed out again.

"I was alone, too. I thought nothing of it. I thought that that was how it had to be, I thought that I was fulfilling my purpose. But now I… I can't stand the thought. I'm _afraid_, Marianne. Of what will become of me without you, knowing that it didn't have to be that way. I don't want to be alone anymore, either!" The way Dimitri said that last sentence, it was almost a howl of pain. Maybe the sound was fueled by the agony of his lost eye. Maybe the pain came entirely from the heart. Even he wasn't quite sure.

The beast seemed to ignore his words and prepared to attack, although a slight tremble to its motions betrayed the truth. Poisonous gas leaked from its mouth as it reared up, jaw open, and prepared to bite.

"And more than that… I still love you, Marianne. All I can offer you now is to be queen of nothing, but I offer it all the same."

The beast stopped its attack mere centimetres from Dimitri's face, poison dripping from its jaw. It's face contorted in confusion and fury.

Dimitri stood there, blocking out the pain as best he could, and stared it down.

The beast bellowed in dubiety and fury, and lashed out with its tail. Dimitri, struck hard by the flailing attack, flew across the air and slammed into a tree. The impact was enough that he finally slipped into unconsciousness.

**"****Dimitri!"** The beast raged.

It lumbered over to Dimitri's body, and regarded it closely. Finding he was still alive, it furrowed its brow in concentration.

The air suddenly became charged with magic, as the beast brought its power together for a spell as powerful as it could muster.

**"****Damn you,"** she growled.

Faithful energy flowed out of the beast, a Heal spell, restoring the life to Dimitri's body, closing his wounds, easing his pain.

Nothing could be done for his eye, as utterly destroyed as it was. But the bleeding would stop and he wouldn't die.

**"****Damn you,"** the beast repeated, **"Damn you!"**

"See? I… was right… Marianne…" Dimitri gasped, returning to consciousness for a brief moment before blacking out again.

* * *

"Oh goddess," On that night five years ago, Marianne had whispered, almost inaudibly, "I beg of thee, spare Dimitri my curse. Let me stay with him without hurting him. Goddess, I… I love him."

She hadn't meant for Dimitri to hear those words, and so he had pretended not to have. He couldn't pretend so to himself, though, and those three last words tormented him for weeks. They gave a name to the twisting feeling in his gut that had been haunting him for so long, a name he didn't want to even think about acknowledging.

But he'd found himself at Marianne's door one night anyway, with a solitary ambrosia flower swiped from the greenhouse in his hands.

* * *

Marianne or the beast, or perhaps both, had curled her body around Dimitri. She had done all in her power to keep him safe and alive.

Marianne's monstrous body was cold to the touch, cold as the grave, and Dimitri's was little better. They would find no warmth in each other's company, but perhaps being cold _together_ would be comfort enough.

They slept the night away, still as the dead.


End file.
